Article closure and method of applying same



D F, EVANS ,7

ARTICLE CLOSURE AND METHOD OF APPLYING SAME Dec. 27, 1938.

Filed Oct. 18, 1954 FIG. 2

. INVENTOR. flax id Franklin Evans ATTORNEY.

Patented Dec. 27,1938

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE David Franklin Evans, Buffalo, N. Y.,assignor, by

mesne assignments, to E.

I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington, Del., a corporation ofDelaware Application October 18, 1934, Serial No. 148,919

2 Claims.

This invention relates to article closures and more particularly itrelates to a closure for bottles and the methods of. applying the samethereto, to prevent forgery or counterfeiting of labels and to preventthe sale to the consumer of a product of inferior quality to thatrepresented by the indicia on the bottle.

In the bottling of spirits of liquor, and other beverages, extensive usehas recently been made of seamless tubes of non-fibrous, cellulosic, andother non-fibrous materials as protective and decorative coveringsaround the stoppers and necks of bottles. These tubes are applied in awet state and allowed to shrink in place as a result of the loss of thecontained water. Such tubes are generally desirable due to theircomparative ease of application, inexpensiveness, attractiveness inappearance and especially to the difliculty of removing them withoutdestroying the same.

As an added insurance against duplication of such tubes, it has beencustomary to print thereon the trade-mark of the merchant in such amanner as to be diflicult of imitation. For such printing, it has beencustomary to make the tubes opaque by incorporating in the material, forexample, viscose, from which the tubes are made, a quantity of pigmentor opacifying material, such as titanium oxide. If it is attempted touse printed transparent tubes, the printing thereon will show to verypoor advantage, particularly where the pellicles are applied to darkcolored bottles.

Recently, there has come into force a Government regulation requiringthe clear display of all parts of. a tax stamp placed over the closureor mouth of a bottle containing spirituous liquor and extending down theneck thereof. If opaque, shrinkable tubes are applied over these taxstamps, the latter will be completely obscured. A transparent tube, onthe other hand, will present a very poor appearance, especially when ithas printed indicia thereon. It has been suggested to overcome thisdifliculty by applying a stamp over the tube, but this procedurerequires that the tube be completely dry before the ap plication of thestamp. This will necessitate a large storage capacity and bottling plantsince the process of drying the tubes takes considerable time.

It is therefore an object of this invention to produce a covering forabottle or other container adapted to clearly display all portions of aGov ernment tax stamp and providing a suitable background for theprinting thereon, of any desirable indicia, in a non-imitatable manner.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a covering for abottle or other container, said covering having a transparent,window-like 5 section and an adjacent opaque section.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a sealedcontainer having a Government tax stamp over the neck and mouth thereof.and a tubular, non-fibrous, cellulosic sleeve surroundl0 ing the neck ofsaid bottle and covering said tax stamp, saidv sleeve having awindow-like, transparent section for display of the entire surface ofthe Government tax stamp.

Other objects of the invention will appear hereinafter.

The objects of the invention may be attained in general by providing aseamless, cellulosic tube having a plurality of longitudinal sectionstherein, some of said sections being composed of plain. transparentmaterial and other sections having opaque or translucent portions whichprovide a background suitable as a base for the printing thereon of anydesired indicia. This tube, while in its wet state, is slid over the topof a bottle having a Government tax stamp arranged over the neck andmouth thereof. The tube or sleeve is adjusted on the bottle neck in sucha manner that the transparent, window-like section is in alignment withthe tax stamp whereas the opaque portions thereof cover the remainingportions of the bottle neck, and then allowed to shrink in situ.

The details of. the invention and the advantages thereof will becomemore clearly apparent by reference to the following description taken inconnection with the accompanying illustration of one specific embodimentthereof and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a liquor bottle with a tubular closureof the type contemplated 40 by this invention, applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a section of flat tubing illustratingthe manner of printing the same;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a non-fibrous sleeve or tube having oneor more transparent and opaque sections therein.

Referring to Fig. 3 of the drawing, reference character l0 designatesgenerally a tube or sleeve composed of non-fibrous sheet material, suchas, for example, regenerated cellulose, which is adapted to shrinkduring drying thereof, into the form or shape of the object on which itis positioned. The tube or sleeve comprises two opposing transparent,window-like sections II, the

remainder of the tube being formed of opaque sections which Will lend asuitable background for printed matter to be placed thereon. Fig. 2illustrates the manner in which the tube l may be flattened or collapsedto present an even surface for the printing of the opaque sectionsthereof.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing, l5 designates a bottle which may obviouslyhave any desired form or shape, having a Government revenue or similarstamp i4 over the mouth of the bottle and extending down the neckthereof, and a pigmented, translucent or opaque sleeve or tube shrunk inplace over the edge of the bottle closure and around the neck of thebottle. This sleeve is provided with a transparent section or sections Hwhich is in superposed relationship with the Government stamp so thatthe entire tax stamp may be visible to an observer. An opaque ortranslucent portion of the sleeve is provided with printed indicia whichis clearly legible against the pigmented background thereof.

The invention'will be described in relation to cellulose bottle tubesregenerated from viscose although it is to be understood that cellulosemay be regenerated from other cellulosic solutions, such as cuprammoniumsolution, and that tubes of cellulose esters, such as cellulose acetate,or cellulose ethers, such as glycol cellulose, may be used. Furthermore,all other non-fibrous pelcient to produce the required opaquing ortranslucent effect, such as titanium oxide, talc, barium sulfate, micaand others. White pigments arepreferred, but colored pigments may beused if desired, or the various portions of viscose, whether or not theycontain opaquing pigments may be colored in different shades or colorsas desired. Tubes opaqued with white pigments may be subsequently dyedwith any suitable coloring material, if desired.

It has been found that particularly desirable ornamental and protectiveeffects, which are difficult of imitation, can be produced byincorporating into the opaqued viscose small particles of regeneratedcellulose or small particles of silk fibers or the like. The smallparticles of regenerated cellulose may be of a particular size, shape ordesign such as, for example, the diamond shaped particles shown in Fig.2. These particles may be produced by die stamping or the like and wouldof course add to the difficulty of imitation.

The differently colored portions, or opaque and colored portions, ofviscose are introduced into separated sections of a suitable extrusiondie.

The portions of viscose are passed through the die in substantiallyparallel relationship while being maintained separate from each other upto a point closely adjacent the outlet of the die. Immediately afterbeing joined, the sections are coagulated, for example, by immersion ina suitable coagulating bath.

The following are examples of compositions, and the products obtainedthereby, useful in the practice of this invention. In all the followingexamples, where percentages are mefitioned, it is to be understood thatthe percentage is based on the weight of the cellulose in the viscose.

Example I.Two separate viscoses are made up in the customary fashion. Toeach portion is added 1% of the red dyestuif known under the trade-namePontamine Fast Scarlet 4-BS (Color Index No. 326). To one portion onlyis added, in addition, of titanium oxide. An annular extrusion device ofknown design is used having four arcuate chambers separated by four,dividing walls spaced at approximately equal distances from each other.The portion of viscose to which titanium oxide has been added isintroduced into two opposite chambers and to the other two chambers isadded the portion of the viscose without the titanium oxide. Thesevarious viscoses are passed from the extrusion device through a commonorifice and coagulated immediately after passage from the orifice. Astriped tube of beautiful red appearance is thus formed, having opaqueportions suitable for printing, and transparent portions suitable fordisclosing portions of the neck of the bottle or a Government tax stamplocated thereon.

Example II .The same procedure is followed as in Example I except thatthe red dye is omitted from both portions of the viscose. A tube ofbeautiful white appearance is obtained, having alternate transparent andwhite stripes with dis tinct lines of division, which may be used as aclosure for a liquor bottle in the same manner set forth in Example I.

After coagulation, the completely formed pellicles are regenerated intocellulose and subsequently purified in well known manner. The pellicles,while still in their wet state, may then be flattened, as shown in Fig.2, with the opaque section thereof uppermost in order to print'saidopaque section in any desired manner. This printing is preferably ofsuch a nature as to be difiicult of imitation. The pellicles, afterbeing printed, may be stored in a suitable container with an aqueoussolution and shipped in their wet state to the user. The user may thenremove the tubes from the container and apply them to the bottle overwhich the governmental tax stamp has already been placed. The sealedbottles may then be placed in the customary shipping cartons, the dryingof the pellicles then proceeding automatically. When the tube is dried,it shrinks into very close contact with the governmental stamp, thusinsuring the easy legibility of the same. There may thus be obtained, asis clearly evident from an inspection of the drawing, a. package ofattractive appearance which will clearly display the governmental taxstamp, and which will have sections of an opaque nature which willafiorda clear display of matter printed thereon. Obviously, if desired, theprinting may be placed on the tube after the same has shrunk in place onthe bottle neck.

Tubes of the nature described above may be provided with any number oftransparent sections to afford visibility to various other stamps orindicia on the neck of the bottle, or the sections may obviously be ofany desired width. Furthermore, the opaque sections of the tube may bein the form of a series of stripes or other designs to afford anyornamental effects desired.

My invention has enabled me to provide tubes of regenerated cellulose orother non-fibrous sheet material of novel and ornamental appearancehaving stripes of opaque, colored, and/or transparent materials for useas protective and decorative sleeves over the necks of liquor bottles incombination with governmental tax stamps placed underneath, such tubesbeing adapted to contain advertising or other indicia thereon.

The use of opaque sleeves having non-imitatable designs or printingthereon was highly desirable due to the protection afiorded therebyagainst counterfeiting and forgery of labels by unauthorized parties;nevertheless, such sleeves have recently been prohibited because of thenature of the above mentioned governmental regulation.

n the other hand, as above pointed out, trans-- parent sleeves have beenfound undesirable by reason of the fact that they do not afford asuitable base for printing matter thereon. By providing opaque sleeveswith transparent sections, it is now possible to obtain the protectivecharacextending over said closure, a sleeve surrounding said stamp andcontainer, said sleeve composed of non-fibrous cellulosic material andcontaining as integrant parts thereof a longitudinal transparent sectionand a longitudinal opaque section, said longitudinal transparent andopaque sections extending the full length of said sleeve, said opaquesection having an opaquing agent embodied therein, and said transparentsection overlying said stamp, said opaque section being "of suflicientwidth to serve as a background for indicia which may be placed thereonand said transparent section being sufiiciently wide to expose to viewsubstantially the width of the stamp covered thereby.

2. A sealed container having a closure, a stamp extending over saidclosure, a sleeve surrounding .said stamp and container, said sleevecomposed of non-fibrous cellulosic material and containing as integrantparts thereof transparent and opaque sections on opposite longitudinalsides thereof, said opaque sections having an opaquing agent embodiedtherein, and said transparent sections overlying said stamp.

DAVID FRANKLIN EVANS.

